PRACTICAL INFORMATION– RIO DE JANEIRO CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE RATE: The official currency of Brazil is the Real. Its symbol is R $ and its fraction are 100 cents. There are coins of 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 cents and 1 real. Notes are issued from 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 real. One important tip for the people that are considering to attend the meeting in Brazil is to avoid changing dollars or euros at airports, because the price will be much less than what is possible to get even in hotels. CLIMATE: Given that Brazil is such a large country, it is natural to have different climates and temperatures and that weather conditions vary from city to city. However, 90 percent of the country is tropical. Temperatures in cities like Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, vary from 15 degrees Celsius to 30 degrees Celsius. Rio de Janeiro, Recife and Salvador have temperatures ranging from 23 to 27 degrees Celsius. However, in cities like Sao Paulo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre temperatures can drop below 0 degrees Celsius. VOLTAGE: 110 and 120 Volts. TIME ZONE: UTC/GMT -3 PASSPORT AND VISA: We recommend you to check the status of your Passport and also if you need a visa (http://www.conbrasil.org.ar/CONSBRASIL/visas_otros01.asp) to enter Brazil. MAIN PLACES OF INTEREST: Located on the Brazilian Atlantic coast and surrounded by a heavenly landscape in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro is waiting for us to transmit its warmth and joy. Its famous beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon have been the subject of hundreds of songs and are visited each year by thousands of tourists. Two characteristic symbols that identify the city of Rio are: Pan de Azúcar, a mountain whose top it is possible to visit by cable car, and a Christ of forty metres high on the top of the Corcovado, the mountain that dominates the city with its seven hundred meters. Rio was the former capital of the Portuguese colonies in America and today has a population of more than six million people that celebrate its joy each year. .